91 archer’s shield from the nearby Elema area that features a stylized grinning face. Two superb Elema bark belts are highlighted in the installation, as is a rare comb from Kiwai Island, a Torres Strait–related island located on the Fly River Estuary, which was bought by the Cinquantenaire from Gustave De Hondt in 1941. West of the Papuan Gulf is the Asmat region, from which the collection contains several superb and ancient shields. One, an unusual example with wavy, horizontal linear decorations, was collected in 1912 and was part of the Catholic mission collection in Tilburg, the Netherlands. There is also a crouching figure with its elbows joined to its knees of the type said to have been made by the founding creator Fumeripitsj as the primal man. This was donated to the Cinquantenaire by Father Le Cocq d’Armandville in 1929. To the east of the Gulf region is an area inhabited by the Motu and Koita peoples, and the exhibition presents two of their fiber-covered hourglass war shields, one decorated with parrot feathers and the other with black painted designs, both donated to Tervuren in 1964. While the Tervuren collection has a number of fine splash boards and canoe ornaments from the Massim area in the extreme eastern part of New Guinea, several lime spatulas from that region are particularly outstanding and two of the finest of these were selected to be included. From nearby Collingwood Bay is a rare widow’s mourning cap and tunic made of Job’s tears. Further up the east coast is the geographic region dominated by Tami Island trade and culture, and the museum has several extraordinary works collected in the 1890s by Lajos Biró, which were formerly in the Budapest Ethnographic Museum and arrived in Belgium through the dealer Emile Deletaille in the early 1970s. The installation also features a group of beautifully decorated Lae-Womba warrior’s barkcloth hats from the nearby Markham Valley on the New Guinea mainland. Finally, there is a group of Korwar objects from the western part of the island, the earliest of which is a janiform neckrest given to the Cinquantenaire by a member of the Dutch colonial van Renesse van Duivenbode family in 1885. Events Masterpieces: New Guinea Art from the Royal Museum of Central Africa can be seen from June 4–15 at the Ancienne Nonciature, the nineteenth-century Papal residence in Brussels, which was recently restored to its former glory. A fully illustrated color catalog accompanies the exhibition with text by Crispin Howarth of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Bart Suys of the Musées FIG. 14: Ancestor figure. Karawari River, Middle Sepik area, Papua New Guinea. Wood, pigment. H: 95 cm. Acquired by the MRAC by exchange before 1970. MRAC inv. #EO.1970.89.18. Figurative sculptures in the upper Karawari River are referred to as yimar, which translates as “humanlike.” Their spiritual function is similar to the more common yipwon figures, as they also aided in hunting and warfare activities. They were similarly kept in the men’s houses and were fed offerings of magic substances.
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